Culmination of Cool, the Local Scene, and Where Do We Go From Here?

Where to begin?

It's been awhile since I wrote one of these.

Firstly, PCW's Culmination of Cool. I can truly say it was perhaps the most memorable event we've ever produced. Around 60 workers took part, including a 50 man Rumble and 400 fans turned out. We had about seven refs, four ring announcers and several promoters take part. It was a four hour epic event. To have that kind of support from the market and the industry is remarkable, even more so when you consider it all came together in less than two weeks.

I was honestly, overwhelmed by the support of the fans and the boys. It almost gives me hope for the local scene when so many guys can come together without any political in-fighting. I've said this to some people and it's worth repeating - guys not only were willing to take part, they wanted to take part. I had several guys contact me to be involved. It was amazing.

For the two weeks leading up to the show, I went back and forth on whether I wanted to be in the Rumble. I knew who I wanted to win from the beginning - Greg Romijn. That was the original plan. One idea kicked around was for Mike Davidson to enter number one and myself to enter number two. When Mike declined, I changed myself to number three so I could interact with every guy coming in before being dumped near the end. Thank goodness that plan didn't come to fruition as I might have had a heart attack if I had to be in there that long.

I ultimately chose not to be in the Rumble for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I knew the music would be a nightmare for Joe and if we were going long (which we were), adjustments would need to be made. I could best handle that from the sound booth. More importantly though, I thought the Rumble was something for the fans and the boys and I would have felt out of place. I've only ever been involved "on screen" in an effort to help get others over and I didn't feel comfortable changing that now.

I did have an idea to do something quick and easy on the show with Mike, but he declined. Obviously, something did change and I ended up not just in the Rumble, but winning it. Evidently, for almost two weeks prior, e-mails had been circulating amongst much of the crew in regards to putting me over as a surprise. I was told it was Kenny Omega's idea and that everyone was in agreement. I threw a wrench into those plans by taking myself out of the Rumble so they had Mike Arnott simply introduce me. I nearly threw a wrench into those plans as well by refusing Joe's offer to take over playing music. Rawskillz lured me out of the booth, Joe cued the music, Mike announced my name...and in I went.

Almost immediately, I tried to get myself eliminated. I knew something was up when I called a spot with Romijn that we'd done in our previous two matches and he agreed and then simply didn't follow through on the elimination.

I was very touched that the guys felt it important to put me over at the end and even more touched by what Kenny said in the ring to close the show. He was much too kind. The highlight of my "career" will always be the success Kenny and Mentallo have had and whatever tiny, probably insignificant part I played in giving them the platform to develop as professionals.

Few people knows this, but I gave very serious thought to calling it quits when Kenny signed his WWE contract. I felt there would be no greater accomplishment. When I continued PCW after Mike left in August 2003, it was to give the fans quality wrestling, but more importantly, to give the best talent the best place to develop their abilities. In retrospect, I am certainly glad I didn't quit. But truthfully, the success of those guys is all I ever needed in the business to feel satisfied.

In addition to Kenny's comments, a few things stuck out in my mind from the show:

- It was great having Bobby Jay there. Perhaps a backhanded compliment, but if not for Bobby, none of the last 6 years would have happened. He found the venue, assembled the crew, drew the smart fans and made indy wrestling cool. He's a nice guy and it sucks what had to happen for PCW to develop, such is life. But Bobby deserves all the recognition in the world for planting the seeds that would later grow into PCW.

- Having Wayne Stanton there was awesome as well. Wayne is such an elder statesman of the business. His mere presence is a calming influence. To have shared a mic with him is truly an honour.

- Speaking of which...man do I ever miss ring announcing! I was selfish in choosing the Kenny/Angels match to intro but I am glad I did.

- It was great having TJ Bratt kick off the Rumble and get closure on his remarkable career. It had to happen at that venue, and all prior heat aside, I would have been disappointed if it didn't happen there.

- MVP one last time! I was surprised and excited when Shane Madison and Will Damon wanted to do the match. Very cool.

- Chi Chi Cruz! He was almost unable to make it, but I am so glad he did. It wouldn't have been the same without our first Heavyweight Champion. And there's something ironic about him presenting the PCW title to Kenny!

I think we really accomplished what we intended to...to honour the past and bring everything full circle. From MVP and Perfect Balance and Cheech...to Kenny vs Angels for the title and Royce and Ozz doing some insane things...it was a PCW show that spanned the ages.

I could go on and on...from Perfect Balance challenging for the PCW Tag Team Championship one last time, to Ryan Wood putting in more time than anyone all night to that amazing, amazing, amazing crowd that stuck with us until the bitter end four hours after the opening bell...there will never be a show like that again.

The worst thing about the show...the fact Mentallo wasn't there. Ofcourse, he was absent for the very best of reasons - his continued success in Mexico. But he was definitely on my mind during the show. Fans will recall myself and Kenny mentioned him during the event. He was one of the few reasons I got involved in indy wrestling in the first place. He contacted me prior to the show to wish us all luck - such a kind and classy guy. He has worked so hard for everything he's accomplished in the business and deserves much success. I'm glad he wasn't there under the circumstances, but I felt a huge void by his absence.

To all the boys and all the fans...my heartfelt and sincere thanks!

And let me throw out a special thanks to Marty Gold, who is an awesome ambassador of the business because he treats wrestling with legitimacy. He pushed our event on his radio show so much...you cant buy advertising like that.

So...where does PCW go from here? I'm not entirely sure. We have the best crew. We have a ring. We have the ability to put on the best local show anyone can produce. But is the desire still there? I told some guys that I probably wouldn't know what I wanted to do until I was standing in the ring at the last show. And I can honestly say, I felt like it was far from over. In fact, some aspects of the booking changed slightly as a result of my feeling that PCW was going to continue as it always had, rather than ending with that show. We obviously set some things up for the future.

Prior to the show, I was leaning towards throwing in the towel. Before we announced the last show, the two-four weeks leading up to it were really stressful with a lot of bullshit politics and unprofessionalism. Knowing the possibility of a last show at the LID was coming, I asked myself numerous times "are these the guys that I really want to make the effort, spend the money, put up with the headaches for"? For every guy who "gets it" and is 100% committed, there are two who simply don't understand the business. Maybe that's not true. Maybe it's a vocal minority.

And while I genuinely appreciate the involvement of everyone in our last show, there are a handful of guys who I will have a difficult time in the future booking on my shows. I'm sure they know who they are. But that's a blog for another time.

I've spoken to a couple of venues. I have my first choice for a regular venue to run and it's a bit of a slow process in getting there. But at the very least, I'll take a month or so off...unless ofcourse the construction at the hotel continues to be delayed. In that case, we might run one or two more shows at the LID.

Another option would be to take a hiatus until the renovations are complete and run in the fancy new banquet rooms. That would create a lot of desire on the part of the fans and the boys to see a quality show...something they aren't used to with most every other show that isn't PCW. If we go that route, we may only run big shows with names and go 4-6 times per year rather than every month. We're also working on an out of town gig in early Summer that could be really exciting and a lot of fun.

The local scene seems to be in a state of flux right now. A year ago, when we went from weekly to monthly, I felt some pressure from our "competitors". Right now? Not at all. A few guys have even told me they'd rather retire than "have" to work for whats out there right now.

One promoter, who I was being friendly with in recent weeks, wasted no time in contacting most of the PCW roster to get them to work some shows...shows they don't even have, I might add. I emailed this person and said "man, we haven't even run our last show yet and you're picking through the bones". Maybe he was trying to inspire me...in a way, it worked.

A lot of guys put heat on me in February over some of the inter-promotional heat. How sad for them to be so clueless.

I saw a couple of responses to a post I made on Shane Madison's blog regarding NWN's cancellation of their event in Morris this week. From what I was told, they cancelled this event due to lack of interest from local businesses to sponsor the event. That should be a wake-up call to many of the boys. If every promoter ran their promotion purely as a business, with the bottom line being the bottom line...there would be no wrestling in Manitoba. If I relied on sponsorship or a guaranteed profit before I ran a show, PCW would have died many years ago. There's a way to make wrestling work...but it requires effort on the parts of everyone, not just one or two promoters and a handful of guys who understand.

RME continues to tease their new Winnipeg venue. This stopped being news several months ago when they began teasing it. No promotion is more internally dysfunctional than RME. From their booking to their depth of talent to talent relations to promotion, to website and everything in between, they do everything wrong. Absolutely everything. If I didn't own PCW and was somehow "fired" from the promotion, the first place I'd go looking for a gig would be RME...just for the challenge. And for all their problems, they are really only one person away from turning it all around....but they don't realise it or won't accept it. And if someone like me pointed that out, I'm an arrogant jerk. Forget my success in the business in Winnipeg...and by one person, I mean a specific person, of which there is really only 2 or 3 guys in Manitoba who could go there and immediately turn it around.

Who knows what is up with WFX. I have no inside information and everyone probably knows as much as I do. But I guess Mike Davidson left the organization (which is no secret to anyone who checks out his Facebook or MSN). I would suspect that is only temporary as my feeling is, the powers that be in WFX won't go into battle without Mike but probably see their efforts until now as a lost investment if they don't continue. As a result, I'd bet Mike ends up running the show again shortly.

I really enjoyed the last few WFX shows (especially the last one). I get what they're trying to do, though Mike and I will always have fundamental differences in how we see the business. The thought has occasionally occurred to me, what would I do with Mike's resources? What a grand vision it would be...

I have to mention Kenny Omega. He lost and regained the PCW Championship (for a record fourth time), won the extremely well respected JAPW Championship by doing what very few people have ever done - tapping out Low-Ki, pinned Jerry Lynn en route to the finals of a 12 person tournament and nearly added another title to his collection...and he did all this in the span of two weeks!

I think it's fair to say Kenny is the hottest prospect in NA right now.

I think, over the next few weeks, I will post some stories about PCW's past. Some of them have been posted before in other places, but I feel I'm in a position now to be very honest about PCW from the beginning. Maybe it will inspire to keep fighting the good fight...or give me closure on the whole thing. Who knows.

Expect an announcement on our future within a month at the latest.

Thanks!

A